I want to lose 15 pounds in a month. I want to crack the toughest exam in my country this year. I want to have a million dollars before I turn 30. I want to score 90% is my upcoming exam. Can you spot any pattern between the statements? Let me help you. They are all goals. Whatever criteria you use from simple SMART technique to more sophisticated forms, they’re goals and you could easily tell at any point in time whether you succeed or fail. It’s largely binary.
Now let’s look it the other way. Losing 15 pounds in 30 days is a goal. But would anyone be able to sustain it once they reach their goal if they revert to their old patterns? They probably won’t until and unless they keep on setting newer and newer goals. Likewise, it initially amazed me when people had single academic goals. They would set a target entrance examination and revolve their entire life around it. Rather than just setting goals and then feeling the thrill for a time, why not resort to a long-lasting method of studying regularly and setting up a real insane work ethic that would aid you more than thousands of temporary goals you set.
I was short for words to describe the technique though that was exactly what I was drawn into for the most part of my adult life. A part of the contribution was from most self-help gurus who argue that without specific goals your life is utterly worthless. Then things changed when I read “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big” by Scott Adams which dedicated an entire chapter explaining goals vs systems. I would highly recommend the book for anyone wanting practical wisdom in their lives.
In the author’s own words:
“A goal is a specific objective that you either achieve or don’t sometime in the future. A system is something you do on a regular basis that increases your odds of success in the long run. If you do something regularly, it’s a system. If you’re waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it’s a goal. Goals are a reach-it-and-be-done situation, whereas a system is something you do on a regular basis with a reasonable expectation that doing so will get you to a better place in your life. Systems have no deadlines, and on any given day you probably can’t tell if they’re moving you in the right direction.”
There is definitely a significant degree of overlap between the two terms. Every system has a goal however vague and every goal need a system for a time being. And I am not at all against goal setting. They are incredible at many times but for a more lasting change, you must follow a system. Scott explained it splendidly.
For example, if your goal is to lose ten pounds, you will spend every moment until you reach the goal — if you reach it at all — feeling as if you were short of your goal. In other words, hardcore goal-oriented people exist in a state of nearly continuous failure that they hope will be temporary. That feeling wears on you. In time, it becomes heavy and uncomfortable. It might even drive you out of the game.
If you achieve your goal, you celebrate and feel terrific, but only until you realize you just lost the thing that gave you purpose and direction. Your options are to feel empty and useless, perhaps enjoying the spoils of your success until they bore you, or set new goals and reenter the cycle of permanent pre-success failure.
Eating healthy is a system. You can expect to have a positive impact on the system in your life. Losing 15 pounds in 30 days is a goal. Once you get there the goal doesn’t exist. After that you have two choices:
- Revert to the system of eating healthy
- Set a new weight loss goal and repeat the cycle
Systems are liberating. If you have to do it every single day of your life, you would adapt to it much faster than when you convince yourself to do it for the next thirty days. If your only aim is to work insanely hard till you get into the top university, you would start having issues with your work ethic once you get into college if the external pressures are not sufficient to make you work hard.
Bottom line: Goals are very important but having an important system is priceless.
